Hamburg, Germany. The small crime scene. Three friends: Gabriel from Turkey and just out of prison, Costa from Greece and together with Gabriel's sister, Bobby from Serbia and together with her best friend. Bobby wants to get more into organized crime and decides to apply for a membership in an Albanian gang. As a test, he has to beat up someone who owes his future boss. He can join. Later, when Bobby has to do a weapon's deal on his own, he tries to get his friends in, too. But Gabriel does not want to go back into crime, he is dreaming of a life at the southern Turkish coast, owning a boat rental shop. Costa, always out of money, joins Bobby for one last time before getting good. But before the deal is on, both women start leaving their men for others. And when the deal is on, it goes terribly wrong.

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Review :

Unseen in German cinema

I was living in St. Pauli, Hamburg at the end of 1998 when this movie came to a cinema on the Reeperbahn. Then, one evening, I met Faith Akin and the main characters of the movie on this very street, and I congratulated them. I told them I had watched the movie three times already, which was not true, since I had only seen it twice, but decided to go and watch it for a third time, which I did, even though I had little money. But I had to watch this movie over and over again, because I had not expected to ever see anything similar from a Germany-born director. The direct, vital, unpretentious acting and the authenticity of the settings and the language were something that I could't get enough of. Ralph Herforth has never been so convincing. It is one of these movies that reveal new details every time you watch them. At times, the movie seems to become very "turkish" and even over-sentimental, at other times, it is just world-class, as for an example in the post-office scene with Costa and his "awakening". To me, this is maybe THE best movie of Faith Akin so far.